Whether or not Senate Republicans defeat cloture, the question will be whether Harry Reid will demand a government shutdown to force Obamacare on every American. We should not shut down the government, and I hope Reid and President Obama do not do so.

Regardless, the House should stand its ground, and if Reid kills this Continuing Resolution then the House should pass smaller CRs one at a time, starting with the military. Dare Reid to keep voting to shut down the government.

Americans are speaking loud and clear. They don’t want to lose their health plans and be forced into Obamacare exchanges, keep their businesses small to avoid the law’s penalties, and let bureaucrats and politicians in Washington make their health care decisions. Let’s listen.

***

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and many of his rank and file are poised to cast votes this week that will effectively rebuke Sen. Ted Cruz’s effort to filibuster a stopgap spending bill that would keep the government funded starting Oct. 1…

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is up for re-election and faces a tea party challenge, didn’t mince words about the problem with the tactics being employed by his fellow GOP senators.

“I think we’ll take up the House bill because it’s a good bill. I can’t imagine filibustering the bill that I like from the House. There will be a vote to take out the defunding of Obamacare. It will be a majority vote,” Graham said Monday on Fox News. “And I’m hoping some Democrats will side with all Republicans to keep the defunding in place, but I doubt it.”

***

As leaders, McConnell and Cornyn can’t make GOP senators do anything; individual lawmakers are too independent for that. But the decision does set the example of Republicans willing to risk the wrath of the most dedicated defunders to oppose what they believe is an unworkable plan. And that leaves the Cruz-Lee proposal in a difficult place.

At this point, it is completely unclear how many Republicans will support the Cruz-Lee strategy. The plan depends on support from at least 41 of the Senate’s 46 Republicans. Given the position taken by McConnell and Cornyn, plus the pointed criticism directed at the plan by other Republicans, it seems unlikely Cruz and Lee will meet that goal.

A source in the Lee camp says the defunders expected the leadership not to go along. Now, the source says, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is preparing to shape the legislation like the two-part plan House Majority Leader Eric Cantor tried, and failed, to pass in the House. “Reid has set this up just like the Cantor plan,” says the source. “It gives the GOP a cover vote to say they supported defunding Obamacare but ultimately results in funding it. Once again, they’ve found a way to avoid being accountable. House conservatives rejected this scheme when Cantor proposed it. It should make it easier to reject now that it’s Reid’s proposal.”

***

.@marcorubio: "A vote for cloture will make it easier for Senate Democrats to preserve this job killing (Obamacare) law."

We disagree with Dionne’s assertion that “people don’t get hooked on bad programs,” and we don’t even accept that Social Security and Medicare are good ones. But those programs are, in contrast with ObamaCare, well designed for the objective of sustaining political support. Whereas the benefits they deliver are tangible, their destructive effects are diffuse and deferred. The burden of the payroll tax is psychologically eased by the fiction that it is a retirement investment. And even if younger workers doubt that they’ll get much out of the system, most have parents or grandparents who do.

ObamaCare, by contrast, will impose hardships on a great many Americans in order to give benefits to complete strangers.

Another difference is that whereas past social programs had bipartisan backing in Congress and broad public support, ObamaCare has never had either. Thus only Democrats are politically invested in it. Non-Democrats have little incentive to be patient if it gets off to a bad start, and Democrats have a lot to lose if it fails. That explains their emotional need to believe that it is sure to be a great success. The alternative is the Palin scenario along with, for them, political and ideological humiliation. To our mind that is the likeliest path to repeal of ObamaCare: As Ulysses Grant observed: “I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.”

Do conservatives like Cruz really believe that ObamaCare will win over the masses if it isn’t stopped now? We don’t know, but we suspect them of an element of cynicism. We aren’t the first to point out that one man who can’t lose in this confrontation is Ted Cruz, who has so raised his profile among Republicans that there is talk of a 2016 presidential campaign.

***

“He’s [Cruz] going to emerge somewhat bloodied, because he’s going to have critics not only from the Democratic Party, but also some from within the Republican Party,” said Craig Shirley, the conservative PR man who’s penned biographies of both Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich, the latter of whom was another polarizing conservative involved in a government shutdown. “But I think he’s going to be enhanced as a force within the Republican Party and American politics.”

If the rise of Obamacare was the catalyzing moment for the Tea Party, then a shutdown could give insurgent conservatives an upper hand in their protracted struggle against the GOP establishment for control of the Republican Party.

Conservative groups like the Club for Growth and Heritage Action – while not strictly Tea Party groups, per se – will have demonstrated a commanding degree of influence over the modern Republican Party if they manage to hold enough GOP lawmakers together to prevent party leaders from reaching an agreement to avoid a shutdown.

***

The GOP, of course, didn’t do so well in the Gingrich-Clinton faceoff, and many Republican leaders obviously fear a repeat, where they get blamed for the president’s refusal to compromise. But for Obama, there are risks, too. One is that the government shutdown happens, and nobody cares much — which has pretty much been the story of the sequester, our last budget bugbear. Faced with a tiny percentage cut in government, most voters yawned, or cheered, or moved on oblivious. Obama’s biggest worry should be that if big government shuts down, the same thing will happen.

Another risk is that a shutdown will contribute to an already growing sense of chaos and incompetence at the top. Obama can blame Republicans all he wants, but his party controls the White House and one house of Congress — two-thirds of the elected levers of power in Washington. If he can’t run the country with the White House and the Senate … well, maybe he just can’t run the country. After Syria, he’s lost a lot of credibility abroad; if he can’t keep the government from shutting down at home, he’s likely to lose credibility here as well, no matter how much finger-pointing he does. Ultimately, if the country seems to be in chaos, it’s the president who gets blamed.

The truth is, Obama would be better off cutting a deal with the Republicans. ObamaCare implementation, scheduled for Oct. 1, is going terribly and it seems very unlikely that it will be anything other than what former supporter Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., correctly characterized as a “train wreck.” In fact, they’ve already had to implement delays and exemptions because of problems. And now there’s word that the software doesn’t work… Obama should be trying to work something out, instead of engaging in brinkmanship.

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If, as anticipated, Hillary [Bengazi] Clinton makes a run for the White House [Bengazi] 2016 she will not want to run the risk of having a political liability such as [Bengazi] Weiner anywhere [Bengazi] near her campaign [Bengazi] team.
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Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn are using their leadership positions to pressure other Republicans to oppose Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in his campaign to defund Obamacare.

“Right now in the Senate, Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn are actively whipping Senators to shut down debate on the House continuing resolution so that Harry Reid can gut it with just 51 votes,” a senior congressional staffer with intimate knowledge of the situation said in an email to Breitbart News. “Unbelievably, they actually are leading the fight to fully fund Obamacare.”……

BREAKING:
EXCLUSIVE–SOURCE: MCCONNELL, CORNYN WHIPPING VOTES AGAINST TED CRUZ
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn are using their leadership positions to pressure other Republicans to oppose Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in his campaign to defund Obamacare.
“Right now in the Senate, Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn are actively whipping Senators to shut down debate on the House continuing resolution so that Harry Reid can gut it with just 51 votes,” a senior congressional staffer with intimate knowledge of the situation said in an email to Breitbart News. “Unbelievably, they actually are leading the fight to fully fund Obamacare.”……http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/23/Exclusive-McConnell-Cornyn-whipping-votes-against-Ted-Cruz

If the GOP establishment is going to fund Obamacare and the fight to defund is now over, as it appears to be considering McConnel and Cornyn are helping Obama whip up votes to fund Obamacare, then it’s time to tie Obamacare around all of their necks and push them over the side.

The poll data is clear and cuts across party lines: 92 percent of the public does not think it is right that Congress and their staff are letting the Obama administration exempt them from the costs of Obamacare. Yet it seems many in Congress still want to dismiss these findings in hopes that these sentiments won’t translate into actual voter preferences.
US Congress 02

We tested the effect of the congressional exemption issue in six different 2014 races, which represent different election archetypes. We launched incumbent-specific, small but targeted, week-long communications campaigns, using mail, phones and internet, (but no TV or radio), directed at 7,500 likely voters. Then we analyzed the criteria regularly used by campaign strategists to measure the strength of an incumbent’s reelection campaign: the “hard re-elect”, or the percentage of voters who say they will vote to reelect the incumbent; the “hard vote against”, or the percentage of voters who say they will vote against an incumbent; and the “ballot test”, or how the incumbent fares when matched up against his challenger.

More Underpants Gnome Strategy from Cruz. There is no path to victory beyond his vivid imagination. There are no more than two potential Democratic defectors, and even they may hesitate since it might mean their races move down the priority scale for DSCC money and the liberal PACs who all love O-Care. And if there were a majority to be cobbled together to defund, Harry Reid would not allow it to come to a vote.

But Cruz isn’t so unpopular among congressional Republicans because he called out some leaders and members or because he is grandstanding to build his own fundraising mailing list with his phony “petition” ads. They are mad because he doesn’t even attend caucus meetings or tell anyone what he is doing. Every move is a surprise. Even “maverick” John McCain attends the meetings and tells leadership flatly when he is going off the reservation.

Cruz accepted no allies other than Lee, who is running his own ads and building his own lists. He skipped the meetings, never called his colleagues in the Senate or counterparts in the House to seek support or share strategy. Then he publicly calls out members of his own party (generically, but that just brushes everyone with the same stroke), and wonders why they all aren’t falling over themselves to support him?

How stupid do you have to be to compare this guy to Reagan, who was the master of politicking with the powerful and bending them to his will?

I haven’t read much Thomas Paine, but Wolly’s lamenting over people w/ children reminded me of this passage I often think about from Paine’s The American Crisis, in which Paine recalls dealing w/ Tories and one in particular w/ a child.

I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! what is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.

But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for ’tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants.

I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, “Well! give me peace in my day.” Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;” and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.

This Germany does not indulge in experiments. It is stable and rich, with its 5.3 percent unemployment rate, balanced budget and steady growth. Europe’s largest nation, with its taste for doing one thing at a time, is in a phase of consolidation. Here again Merkel fits the spirit of the moment. A leader issued from the former East Germany, she is knitting together the united country with prudence. She represents a pragmatic Germany generation whose dictum seems to be: After the big debates, after the agonizing, let’s just get on with being prosperous.

…while the US goes the way of Zimbabwe, the 16th freest land on the planet, as of yesterday.

ObamaCare is going to make a train wreck look like a fender bender. Just get out of the way and pass the popcorn. It’s that easy.

Adjoran on September 24, 2013 at 1:34 AM

But you’re not getting out of the way, you’re joining with the Democrats and stabbing conservatives and libertarians in the back to help Obama fund Obamacare. You and others of your ilk say you’re imposing Obamacare on myself and the rest of us with the express purpose of making us pay for something we didn’t have anything to do with and never wanted… and the most absurd and offensive part is that you think that by inflicting as much pain on us as possible we’re going to reward you for your betrayal and intransigence by voting for your corrupt, piece of crap politicians! What a pathetic, offensive joke you are!

There’s a case to be made that obamacare being a disaster is the plan. It’ll be an excuse to further empower the government. Maybe it won’t work out that way, but everything else does & it must be part of their plan. Last month Harry Reid said obamacare will require doing away w/ private insurance.

Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. I say attack it at every opportunity.

ObamaCare is going to make a train wreck look like a fender bender. Just get out of the way and pass the popcorn. It’s that easy.

Adjoran on September 24, 2013 at 1:34 AM

It’s not that easy. BarkyCare will destroy the health care and medical industries. Recovery from that will not be easy as the whole point of BarkyCare is to pervert those systems and cause irreparable damage to them.

If you want to step aside and watch the greatest health care and medical industries torn to shreds and left a smoking pile of ash, then good for you. Anyone with a brain would say that it is best to stop the damage at the earliest possible time, not to have everything burn before your eyes and then hope that it will be reversed.

And this does not even go into the damage done by letting the feral government actually exercise these ridiculously immense powers – powers they were never given and should NEVER have. Again … irreparable damage that you think it is best to experience.

And even if younger workers doubt that they’ll get much out of the system, most have parents or grandparents who do.

In this Godless world of the culture of death, don’t kid yourself that many (but not all) “younger workers” won’t be relieved to have those death panels rid them of the guilt of tough decisions and the inconvenience of the burden of older parents and grandparents …and then there’s those inheritances that will be less used up.
Sad, but this is the result of removing God, self-esteem, you’re number one, you deserve it, instant rights, relative morality, and the division of families as planned by the leftist political class.

Cruz is right. This fight is also about forcing the hands of those who want Obamacare for the next elections–the GOP has now come out of the closet for even the least intelligent to see as nothing but co-ruling complicit power politicians who could care what the citizens wish.
It is time to Cloward Piven their systems, time to give them what they want–a radically disfunctioning party.

Good Morning, Patriots! …and, Trolls.
I wrote about the very good friend of Former Gov. Sarah Palin today.

I think the first and principle objective is to repeal Obamacare before it does lasting, fundamental damage to our health care system, to our individual liberty, to the relationship each of us has with his or her doctor.

As Ulysses Grant observed: “I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.”

Surely if Democrats love Obamacare they will strip out waivers, exemptions and all power of the President to pick and choose what to do and not to do with the law. Put a 10 year penalty on anyone in the chain of command who tries it. And with any hiccup, any problem in execution, any minor glitch the entire law is suspended until the Executive Branch can come back and tell Congress what the problems are with the law.

Apply Obamacare with no masks, no nicities, fully with the provisos for full implementation as given, no exceptions and all waivers nullified and no new ones coming and let the Executive show just how good it is at executing the law that this President signed on to and wanted. If it can’t be done the entire thing is suspended, all funding is suspended and at the beginning of the next FY reverts to the Treasury with all positions dissolved. No enforcement of any part of the law could be done until the entire thing, top to bottom, with all parts and add-ons, is shown to have a feasible and workable plan from the Executive for Congress to vote on.

That makes simple defunding look like the sweet and nice option.

And at that point no one could gainsay that Congresscritters weren’t serious about removing favoritism from the law’s execution and wants it done JUST as the bill describes. You know, the ‘trainwreck’ option.

That is Option B: trainwreck and then close down that rail spur until someone can show a way it can work as this canyon just can’t be crossed. When the enemy holds ground that isn’t easily taken, then let them keep it and cut it off some other way. Amazing what happens when the lines of supply get cut off…and if that is where the Democratic Party wishes to be, then so be it. Give them what they want in a way that they can’t accept nor that they can refuse. Their choice: do you support the law as written or not?

Point out that it is nicer than Option B which will be coming their way.

Option C is the right way to fund government: department by department, agency by agency. Fund everything except those parts of the government necessary to enforce Obamacare. Put this fight being over the IRS and HHS and see what great supporters the IRS has.

Defund.

Poison.

Excise.

One of these will do it, if there are any guts amongst those supporting defunding as it defines what comes next with more Stupid Reid and Obama tricks. And the last is just simple bills that Reid will be saying that he just loves the IRS as it is, as well as HHS if he tries to gut and replace and the House says ‘just vote up or down, we will trust the American People to send what they think government needs to run to the Treasury on 15 APR and will not penalize for late payments or allow any penalties in this instance’. Who knows this might just get rid of Obamacare and the IRS, both… too bad it is Option C.